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One of my sisters tells me all the time that her deepest held value is the pursuit of truth. She told me a story recently of a relationship she was in a while back where one of the values this guy held was to “make people happy”. She recounted a scene where those two values came into direct conflict with one another, and it was the beginning of the end for them. In that particular case, I totally saw what she was saying. I could see the conflict clear as day… and knowing her as well as I do, I totally think she did the right thing breaking it off. That said, it got me thinking generally about those incompatibilities- the way we conceptualize and work with truth and honesty, and how we can create and maintain value and purpose in our life in relationship to it.… Continue Reading...

A few weeks back I was catching up on some work at a coffee shop and was approached by a man who identified himself as one of the earliest members of my “garden crew”, back in 2011 at the Farm (the organization that is now the host of the Cooperative). I recognized him then, and we chatted for a few minutes about what’s been going on, how the project has changed there and gotten better over the years. He told me about how that experience had affected him and how he brought it forward into his work afterwards- starting garden programs of his own.

This was incredibly gratifying for me, especially because the job at that stage of the game was full of trials and adjustments and was, in retrospect, some of the most important “social permaculture” work I’ve done- it challenged me to do a lot of the honest observation and the uncomfortable work of failure that is so integral in finding the form of a system that wants to grow and thrive.… Continue Reading...

I’ve thought so many times about writing some version of this post, but for whatever reason in the past it just never felt like quite the right time. I want to talk about food- specifically about the future of it, about our relationship with it, about who grows it and what they need to keep doing that. I also want to open up the conversation to brainstorm about how to keep this thing alive and well and in service to the community.

I think part of my aversion to speaking about this has been because I understand the delicate moral territory this represents. I didn’t want to make appeals for localism that appeared short-sighted or out of touch with folks’ need to just do what works to get food on the table.… Continue Reading...

To start, a story I wrote a couple of weeks ago. I shared this story at a recent educational event I put on at the Cooperative called “The Future of Food”. I thought it held some lessons in that context, but I also want to share it here.

Red Ranger broilers, May 2017

I was really proud of our homesteading efforts this year. We have gardened for several years, but this was the first year we raised some of our own meat. We raised about 30 chickens for meat this spring, butchered and processed them ourselves in early summer, and tucked them neatly in our chest freezer to use over the course of the year. We learned so much and felt so self-sufficient – so connected to the process.… Continue Reading...

This, being the true etymology of the word “belonging”… seemingly paradoxical, given the way we conceptualize “belonging” in our culture. It’s the natural consequence, I suppose, of a culture rooted in slavery and theft and worship of insatiable “progress”, that we would have to redefine a word such as this as “to be the property of”, etc. Our use of the word has a binding around it, an attempt at control and ownership. And yet, I don’t believe any of that control yields what we are looking for. I looked up the etymology of the word “longing” and I see “to yearn after, grieve for” and “to grow long, lengthen”. What if we were to navigate towards our belonging in these terms?… Continue Reading...

Yesterday I got one of those social media generated “memory” posts. You know, the “You posted this 5 years ago today!” thing? Well, it was the sharing of a 5-year-old-blog post called “Living in Community: Part 1”. It was a sweet blog post, all about how we’d suddenly become a household of 10 in our old house in the city. I was adventurous but well-reasoned, enthusiastic, principled… so not much has changed, in that regard! And yet, here I sit with a drastically different looking life. Now we live in a roomy house nestled in the woods with, for the first time in several years, no one but our immediate family living with us. My farm endeavors are much smaller and less productive and profitable, although far more stable and sustaining at the same time.… Continue Reading...

I’ve updated so few times over past months that I have trouble sitting down and deciding what to share and what can be left out. However, I often find that if I get started then things just come as they need to, and the think I’m thinking about is… ducks. Yes, let’s try from there.

Back in the spring we were extremely excited to find one of our ducks sitting on a nest. We were delighted and had been wanting the flock to grow. The clutch of eggs she was managing was extremely large, and we wondered if the other hens were adding eggs to it. But, we decided to go for a very hands-off approach and trust that she knew what she was doing.… Continue Reading...

I was working out in the garden this afternoon, shoveling leaf mulch over neglected areas and the spaces soon to be planted up for the fall. I’m dreaming of sweet roots harvested under a cool fall sun. The time to plant again comes quick. Sweat was dripping down my cheek and I was feeling strong and disciplined and capable. My thoughts fluttered between the physical “Ooof maybe that’s enough. No… one more wheelbarrow load. You’ve got it in you.” and then to thoughts on myself and the garden “I didn’t manage everything very well, I wonder how much food we’ll actually get…” and “I am still learning. I am super busy and I try.… Continue Reading...

We are busy farm folk now. Almost every weekend is full of projects or company, and I’m just soaking it up and working to recalibrate any expectations of what life “should be” into gratitude for what is. I’m very happy, but the days often stretch long and I have endless cleaning and cooking and kid snuggling to do. At this stage of my life, my commitment to service of others is taking the main stage. In my more tired moments, I’ll sometimes resent the lack of time for personal time/projects or creative work. But also I often look up and see how much my world really is crafted by my unique point of view and creativity and I feel immense gratitude for the privilege of it all.… Continue Reading...

That title has a nice ring to it, yes? A tad ambitious to commit to a weekly update, I think, given how infrequently I’m able to post this days, but still. Worth a shot? I am actually fine tuning a lot around these parts, so why not my writing flow as well?

I’ll try to keep this update as concise as possible. A lot has gone on over the last few weeks, and I don’t really want to leave anything out since I’m still learning so much. I value the resource of this blog in looking back to see what we have done.

Chickens. Last I shared they were still relatively chick-like and we’d moved them from the bathtub set up into the basement area. Well, I think they outgrew that in about two weeks and were dusty and smelly, so I had to think quick about a solution that would allow them to mature a little more in a protected warm environment and give us time to get the chicken coop situation in order.… Continue Reading...